Dynamite's Star-Studded SDCC Plans

By Newsarama Staff July 21, 2009 12:13pm ET

Willingham on His Coming Dynamite Days

DYNAMITE PANEL TO FEATURE HOLLYWOOD’S

“DYNAMITE” TALENT AT SAN DIEGO COMIC CON PANEL!

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT today released a guest list for its premiere San Diego Comic-Con panel. The panel, entitled “From Comic Books to Movies and Other Media,” will address the specific narrative requirements of each distinct form. The panel will feature a diverse and distinguished list of San Diego Comic-Con guests, and select Dynamite announcements will be made from the dais. The panel will be made up of writers (Comic Books, Novels, Films, TV, and Videogames), artists, and producers, and each of those guests holds an intriguing connection to Dynamite that will be revealed during the convention and in the days to follow. How do they all connect and what does the future hold for this incredible talent pool and Dynamite? Be there Friday, July 24th 2009 at 5:00PM (PST) in Room #8 of the San Diego Convention Center for the start of something BIG! Dynamite’s panelists are Marc Guggenheim, Jeff Katz, Darick Robertson, Sander Schwartz, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Jules Urbach, Flint Dille, Rick Alexander, Geoff Burdick, Paul S. Levine, Ford Lytle-Gillmore, and Bob Teitel.

For a “dynamite” tease, posters of one of Dynamite’s up and coming properties, “Militia,” are scheduled to be given away at the panel.

As of press time, guests are as follows with additional information on each guest:

Marc Guggenheim
Marc Guggenheim – a native of Long Island, New York, Marc practiced law at one of Boston’s most prestigious firms for over four years before leaving to pursue his dream of writing professionally. That legal experience led to a staff position on David E. Kelley’s Emmy-winning show about Boston attorneys, “The Practice.”

Marc is writing the upcoming “Flash Forward” with David Goyer, and the upcoming “Green Lantern” feature (with Ryan Reynolds confirmed as Hal Jordan) to be directed by Martin Campbell for Warner Bros. He also has projects with Dynamite following the success of the “Super Zombies” series and Dynamite's upcoming “Galactica 1980.” From the writing staff of “Law & Order,” where he wrote for three seasons before moving on to the critically-acclaimed series “Jack & Bobby,” and later, the ratings juggernaut “CSI: Miami,” Marc was also an Executive Producer and writer on the second season of “Eli Stone” for which he received a Writers Guild Award nomination for Best Drama Teleplay.

While maintaining a successful career in television, Marc simultaneously pursued other creative avenues. A life-long comic book fan, he has been writing comics professionally since 2005.

In addition to television, film, and comic books, Marc is continually exploring other mediums. He’s written the scripts for numerous videogames, including “Perfect Dark Zero,” “Call of Duty 3” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Last year, he adapted a new Stephen King short story – “N.” – as a 25-part mobisode series that was available online and through iTunes.

Darick Robertson
Darick Robertson – is the co-creator of “Transmetropolitan” and “The Boys.” After 24 years in the industry he's a seasoned veteran of comics, having worked for Marvel, DC, Vertigo, and a few now defunct companies, such as Malibu Comics (where he co-created and designed “Nightman,” and wrote and created “Ripfire”), Acclaim, Eclipse and Innovation.

His career started just out of Aragon high school in San Mateo, California when he was 17. He created, wrote (and drew and painted covers for) “Space Beaver,” soon to be collected in an Omnibus Edition from Dynamite Entertainment. Darick learned the ropes of the comic book business and at 21 he broke into the mainstream with his work on “Justice League” for DC Comics. From there he went on to work for Marvel on “Wolverine,” “Spider-Man” and, most notably, the “New Warriors.” In May of 2002 Robertson went exclusive with Marvel comics and was picked to relaunch one of their flagship characters, “Wolverine,” with writer Greg Rucka. He followed it with the critically acclaimed “Punisher: BORN” mini series with Garth Ennis.

In 2006 Darick resigned from his exclusivity at Marvel to do a new creator owned series with longtime friend and collaborator Garth Ennis entitled “The Boys.” In a storm of controversy, Wildstorm/DC cancelled “The Boys” after 6 issues and the title resumed with Dynamite publishing in June of 2007.

Jeff Katz – is a studio executive, producer and comic book author who worked with Dynamite on “Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.” Katz recently launched American Original, a new entertainment company that will provide content across multiple platforms geared to the growing genre consumer base as well as provide services to genre creators themselves. The newly launched entity will consist of multiple divisions, including publishing and film & television production, all operating under the American Original banner.

Katz, a former Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema who oversaw production of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” is one of the leading players in Hollywood’s genre community. Targeting the savvy genre audience, which has become one of the most lucrative and desired markets in Hollywood, American Original - playfully referred to by Katz as a “nerd machine,” will stand as a credible and authentic voice for the comic industry and its fans within the Hollywood community while creating the genre production business model of the future.

It was during his time at New Line that Katz embarked on a successful second career as a comic book writer with his first work published by Image Comics in the 2005 anthology “The Wicked West.” In 2007, Katz signed on to the biggest success of his comic book career, “Booster Gold” with DC Comics. Teaming with comic book superstar Geoff Johns, Katz's run on “Booster Gold” was an unexpected success both critically and commercially, putting Katz on the map in a second industry. While he was on location in Australia, the Katz-created horror crossover mini-series “Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash” (the unofficial sequel to “Freddy vs. Jason”) became a hit for Wildstorm and Dynamite and a sequel mini-series based on a story by Katz titled “Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash II - The Nightmare Warriors” began shipping in June. Katz was recently named one of the "9 to watch in '09" by Newsarama, one of the top comics sites on the web.

Sander Schwartz – revitalized Warner Bros. Animation and worked with Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. Schwartz has been awarded an Emmy for his role in producing “The Batman” series for Kids WB. He has also received numerous other awards, including the Peabody Award and the prestigious Prism Award for his work on WBA's shows. Prior to pursuing independent production in 2008, Schwartz was President, International Production for Sony Pictures Television International, overseeing all of Sony’s local language television efforts outside of the United States.

Prior to joining WBA, Schwartz was the first president of Sony Pictures Family Entertainment. Under Schwartz’s management, SPFE produced traditional cel animation, 3-D CGI animation and live-action series, including “Jackie Chan Adventures”, “Max Steel” and “Men in Black: The Series” for Kids WB!; “Dragon Tales” (co-produced with Sesame Workshop) on PBS’s “Ready to Learn” block; and “Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles,” “Jumanji” and “Extreme Ghostbusters,” which aired in syndication.

Flint Dille – is the “Buck Rogers” licensor and is working with Dynamite to present Buck’s 25th Century adventures in the 21st Century! Flint is a screenwriter, game designer, and novelist. He has worked with DC Comics and Warner Brothers with Jim Lee on “Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu” video game.

Flint has written four interactive novels, five “regular” novels, graphic novels, and comic books and has been President of Ground Zero Productions (GZP) since its incorporation in 1991. As well as serving as Flint’s holding company, Ground Zero, has produced interactive video games, interactive audio discs, and simulations for the Intel Community and videos for private and public corporations.

Jules Urbach – is the Founder and CEO of OTOY and Lightstage. Jules has applied the OTOY lighting system to the “Transformers” movies for Paramount Pictures, culminating in real time 4k and 8k pixel renders and animations of the ILM movie models for Paramount's marketing campaign during the month of the movie's release and replicated this with AMD's help for Sony Picture's “Spider-Man 3.” The OTOY rendering engine is currently being used in feature film, animation and online projects for AMD, EA, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Toei Animation, Warner Brothers, Hasbro, and Disney.

Rick Alexander – is actively developing an IP-driven slate of film, television, and new media projects through his production shingle, Alexander Content, and counts among his creative partners media companies such as Legendary Pictures, Mosaic Media Group, Katalyst Films, Mandeville Films, American Original Entertainment and Dynamite Entertainment, and comics notables Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction, Steven Grant, Ivan Brandon, Kurt Busiek and Howard Chaykin. Currently a Producer on MGM’s big budget fantasy comedy “Exec V.P. of Fairyland,” Alexander also toils as a screenwriter (studio assignments have included a reimagining of ’80s thriller “Dressed To Kill” and an adaptation of the graphic novel “Subatomic”), and is an award winning writer-producer of scripted television (“Strong Medicine”) with broadcast and cable network pilot sales to his credit. In addition to his past successes setting up branded properties and pop culture franchises like "Conan, The Barbarian" (Warner Brothers), “Puncture” (Hyde Park Entertainment), "Noble Causes" (Syfy), "Cloak And Dagger" (Dimension), "Power & Glory" (Disney), and "Dolemite" (New Line), Alexander has experienced the fleeting pleasure of having once had directors like The Wachowski Brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Darren Lynn Bousman, and Robert Rodriguez attached to his films.

Robert Teitel – produced the well-received feature “Soul Food” for Fox 2000 at 20th Century Fox. On a sparse budget of $7.5 million, “Soul Food” managed to astound the film community by surpassing all expectations and grossing $43 million. The soundtrack shipped double platinum and when the film went on sale in video, it was in the top 10. Based off of the movie, “Soul Food” was developed into a television show for Showtime and ran seventy-five episodes, a record for an African-American based show.

Upon the release of the film, Bob signed a first look production deal with Fox 2000 for the new production company, State Street Pictures, which enabled him and his partner George Tillman to develop projects for Teitel to produce and for Tillman to produce and direct. State Street’s other credits include the hit drama, “Men Of Honor” - which grossed $100 million worldwide and stars Oscar winning actors Robert De Niro, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Charlize Theron - "Barbershop” and "Beauty Shop.” Teitel produced all the films in the “Barbershop” franchise, with the first costing $12 million and grossing $75 million domestically alone. With the success of the first film, State Street made “Barbershop 2,” which not only grossed $65 million but also spawned “Beautyshop” starring Queen Latifah; they went on to become the largest grossing franchise in the urban genre.

Most recently, Teitel produced “Notorious,” the biopic of the slain rapper The Notorious B.I.G., with Tillman returning to the director’s chair, which opened January 2009 to Fox Searchlight’s biggest opening weekend to date at $24 million and which also had the honor of closing the Berlin Film Festival that same year.

Javier Grillo-Marxuach – is an award-winning writer and producer who has worked with Dynamite previously, and is currently in discussions for new projects. His credits include the Emmy, WGA and Golden Globe award-winning, AFI honored hit series "Lost" as well as "Medium," "Boomtown," "Charmed," "Law & Order: SVU," "The Dead Zone," "The Pretender," "seaQuest" and "The Middleman" (based on his graphic novels for Viper comics).

Through 2010 Javier Grillo-Marxuach will serve as Co-Executive Producer of the new NBC/Universal drama "Day One" with Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander. He also produced an award-winning interactive marketing campaign for ABC, and adapted the Brian Wood/Rob G graphic novel "The Couriers" for Intrepid pictures.

Geoff Burdick, Creator / Co-Writer "Militia" – is Vice President of Production Services & Technology at James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment. Having joined the company in 1990, he has worked in a variety of areas on Cameron's blockbuster productions, including model-making, R&D, visual effects, post-production and on state-of-the-art 3D cinematic technology. Burdick's credits include “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “The Abyss: Special Edition,” “True Lies,” and “Titanic,” among others. He is currently working on Jim Cameron's highly anticipated “Avatar.” Ford Lytle Gilmore – channeled his expertise with comics and gaming to form management and production company Illuminati Entertainment in 2002. Illuminati’s primary focus is on clients and projects with origins in comic books and video games. He’s set-up a myriad of projects that he’s attached to produce since launching the company, including feature films based on Jeff Parker’s graphic novel “The Interman” at New Line Cinema, Paul Dini’s “Jingle Belle” with Adam Sandler, and 12 Gauge Comics’ “The Ride” with Tom Jacobson. He’s also been involved in brokering deals for clients’ material including Tony Harris’ “War Heroes” at Sony, Steve Lieber’s “Whiteout” at Dark Castle, Cully Hamner’s “Red” at Summit Entertainment, to name a recent few. He recently broke new ground by packaging comic books with talent - then franchising the comic property as a pre-packaged brand - with “O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Task Force”; the comic “stars” Rosario Dawson, and Gilmore is Executive Producing the feature adaptation at Dimension with Dawson playing her character from the comic. A number of pre-packaged comic projects are in the works. “Catacombs,” a film he co-executive produced, was co-written and directed by comic book creator and client Tomm Coker (though not based on a comic) for Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate.

He’s both well-known and respected in all parts of the comics industry, thanks to 20 years of experience in comics, the fact that he represents so many of the most-respected creators in the industry, and the fact that comics creators and collectors still view him as “one of us” rather than just another Hollywood suit trying to exploit their industry. This is because he remains a prolific creator himself. He was the writer behind the smash-hit re-launch of the 80’s cartoon franchise “Thundercats” at DC Comics' WildStorm imprint--where it was their best-selling book in a decade--as well as the creator of the horror series “Nightfall.” In animation, he’s written the bibles for Cartoon Network’s new “Thundercats” and “Transformers” series, among others. The fourth novel in his and Christopher Golden’s young adult horror series “The Hollow” was recently published by Penguin Books.

Paul S. Levine – The vast majority of Paul S. Levine’s clients come to him as new, previously unpublished, or self-published authors. Levine has a keen understanding of industry strategy and has the editorial contacts required to ensure his success as both a literary agent and entertainment law attorney, and is thus able to offer his clients a comprehensive range of publishing or literary attorney services. His unique combination of publishing industry savvy and entertainment legal services makes Levine a dynamic choice for both new and published authors alike. Leaning toward socially and politically important literature, he will consider fiction, non-fiction, children’s, young adult manuscripts, graphic novels and comic books and proposals for non-fiction books. Highly aware of market trends and editors’ preferences, Levine limits himself to projects which he believes in and feels certain he can sell.

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT, the publishing division of DYNAMIC FORCES, INC., was founded in 2004 and is home to several best-selling comic book titles and properties, including “Red Sonja,” “Project Superpowers,” “The Boys,” “Army of Darkness,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Lone Ranger,” “Zorro” and more!

In addition to their critically-acclaimed titles and best selling comics, Dynamite works with some of the most high profile creators in comics and entertainment, including Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Garth Ennis, Michael Turner’s Aspen Comics, Jim Lee, Michael Avon Oeming, Brian Reed, Mel Rubi, Marc Guggenheim, Stephen Sadowski, Mike Carey, Jim Krueger, Greg Pak, Brett Matthews, Matt Wagner and a host of up and coming new talent and fan favorite creators!

DYNAMITE is consistently ranked in the upper tiers of comic book publishers and several of their more recent launches - including Alex Ross and Jim Krueger's “Project Superpowers” - have debuted in the Top Ten lists produced by Diamond Comics Distributors. In 2005 Diamond awarded the company a Gem Award for Best New Publisher and another Gem in 2006 for Comics Publisher of the Year (under 5%). The company has also been nominated for several industry awards, including the prestigious Eisner Award.